Friday, 5 April 2013

I dropped into the gaming club again and played
against Dave, a brilliant painter whose orks I have played against before but
he had his chaos space marine army with him this time round. So we played 1500
points, Purge the alien, vanguard strike deployment.

Now the first thing you may notice is that his chaos
space marine army is Deathguard, a very well painted deathguard army. That’s
one of the reasons I wanted to play him, while my army isn’t painted very well
by any ones standards, the painted plague marines are brilliant, as is the
daemon prince model he brought just encase one of his characters ascend. He is
also quite into the fluff of warhammer so with his deathguard his units of
plague marines are all in units of 7! May the papa Nurgle bless his army.

The Armies

Eldar/Dark
eldar 1500 points

Farseer
– 100 (warlord: Re-roll reserves) w/ wraithguard

Runes
of warding, fortune

10
Wraithguard – 396

Warlock,
conceal, spiritseer

10
Guardians – 95

Scatter
laser

3
war walkers – 180

Scatter
lasers

2
war walkers – 120

Scatter
lasers

6
warp spiders – 149

Exarch,
2 x spinner

The
Baron – 105

10
Warriors – 115

Dark
lance

5
warriors – 60

Blaster

Venom
– 65

2
x splinter cannon

Ravager
– 115

Night
shield

Death Guard

Now I don’t know the points but this is what he had:

Typhus (warlord: lord of terror) w/ toads

7 Plague Marines

Champion, power fist, 2 x melta gun

7 Plague Marines

Champion, power fist, 2 x plasma gun

7 Plague Marines

Champion, power fist, plasma pistol, 2 x plasma gun

10 cultists

6 plague toads (spawn)

Mark of Nurgle

Vindicator

Daemonic possession

Vindicator

Daemonic possession

Aegis defence line

Icarus Lascannon

So quite an intimidating army to be facing, not only
do I have two vindicators to deal with (with front armour 13 so my strength 6
is useless) I have a large mob of spawn of Nurgle which will wreck my day if
they touch any unit other than the wraithguard, and they have the speed to
ignore them. Those 3 are my priorities to take out first, and then I need to go
after the plague marines.

The Mission

We rolled the mission Purge the alien, so we are going
after kill points. This gives me a distinct disadvantage as I have 10 points to
give up compared to his 8, and his are hard as nails compared to my weak ones.
Never mind. Deployment was vanguard strike. The chaos defence line was placed
in a box quite far back in his deployment zone.

I won the roll and set up first, deploying my
wraithguard in the centre, backed up by the large unit of war walkers, the dark
eldar warriors on foot went in the ruin on my left. The guardians hid behind
the hill in the centre of my deployment zone with the ravager and venom on my
right. My smaller war walkers hid behind the left ruin to attack later on.
Taking a risky move I placed my warp spiders into reserve to deep strike in
later (hopefully behind a tank).

He deployed to counter this with the cultists and a
unit of plague marines in the defence line. A vindicator went on the far left,
typhus and the toads went in the centre supported by another plague marine unit
and a vindicator behind it. The final plague marine unit went on the right.

Steal the initiative: No

Night fight: No

The Battle

Eldar turn 1

I fortune the wraithguard and they surge forwards
turn 1 straight towards his lines, I need them to be able to take out a
vindicator next turn. The venom moves to the side a little to be able to
cleanly see the toads, the ravager moves a little as well to get its jink save.
The two war walkers walk forwards to get a line of sight on some chaos.

Shooting starts with the ravager on the right hand
side vindicator, it destroys the vehicles only weapon, effectively neutralising
it. The venom unleashes its torrent of fire into the spawn and I manage to get
6 wounds, killing 2 whole toads. It takes the combined fire of both war walker
squads to kill 3 of the plague marines who are in the defence line. The
warriors on foot unfortunately fail to do anything to the left vindicator. To finish
the wraithguard run forwards.

Chaos turn 1

Typhus attempts to cast gift of contagion onto the wraithguard
but I manage to deny the witch with my farseer (5+) stopping it. The right
vindicator moves forwards intending to ram my vehicles later on in the game.
With mighty leaps the toads quickly move towards my line, 12 inches is very
scary. And typhus straggles behind them. All the plague marines move forwards
trying to get into bolter range of my army.

First shot of the chaos turn is from the Icarus
lascannon, hitting and blowing a weapon off the venom. The vindicator on the
left targets the wraithguard, scatters but manages to kill a single construct. The
rest of the army runs.

Eldar turn 2

I fortune the wraithguard again, and the warp spiders
deep strike in. I place them on the left near the side armour of the vindicator
and they scatter off the table. Rolling on the mishap table they get a 2. My opponent
then places them on the bottom right hand corner of the table right on the
edge. Damn. The wraithguard move towards
the spawn as I can get a few models in range, and the ravager moves left to
target the other vindicator. Edging forward to get the blaster in range, the
venom moves.

Again aiming its triple dark lances at the
vindicator, the ravager this time explodes the tank with a lucky roll, and failed
cover saves on my opponents half (first blood). The warrior’s blaster then does
the same to the other vindicator. Using the power of the warp against chaos,
the wraithguard kill 1 spawn and deal 2 wounds to another. The large squad of
war walkers all aim at the spawn and manage to kill the wounded toad but then typhus
takes 6 wounds on the chin, laughing at the eldar laser weaponry (gimp). The
other war walkers shoot at the cultists and even though they go to ground 4 of
them die (where was that vs typhus??).

Chaos turn 2

Typhus again casts gift of contagion on the wraithguard
and again the farseer prevents the spirit constructs from coming to any harm
with another deny the witch. The spawn then goes after the venom. Typhus joins
up with a unit of plague marines and goes after the wraithguard, supported by a
second unit of plague marines. The far right plague marines go after the venom.

Shooting is short with the lascannon missing and the
right hand plague marines wrecking the venom.

The first combat phase this game and the toad charges
into the guardians killing a single guardian who failed their fear test. They
hold (unfortunately). Typhus sends the supporting plague marine unit into the
wraithguard first who take a single wound but feel no pain ignores it, then
joins the melee with his own unit. A champion issues a challenge to which the
baron accepts (due to bad placement he couldn’t have made it into base combat
so it was better than nothing) but no one takes any wounds. Nothing happens
this fight, apart from the big man himself who destroys 4 wraithguard and slays
the warlock... not cool. I then hit and run away.

Eldar turn 3

Well that was a very painful combat phase so I need
to try something different. I cast fortune on the wraithguard again and they
move up towards the cultists. The ravager moves to the right to target the few
remaining plague marines on the right flank.

The wraithguard start the shooting phase killing a
single cultists. The ravager kills 3 plague marines on the right, backed up by
the small warrior squad who kill another 1. The warriors on the left shoot at
the smaller plague marine squad killing 1. All the war walkers shoot at the
small remnants but fail to do anything thanks to saves and feel no pain, to be
fair he deserved a bit of luck this game. I remember I have warp spiders and
run them forward.

Combat and the wraithguard charge the cultists and
kill them all to a man, they then take up a position behind the defence
line. The toad kills 4 guardians and
they run.

Chaos turn 3

Typhus again tries to gift my wraithguard with contagion
but the farseer keeps up his unbeatable record and denies the chaos gods their
fun. The toad runs towards the large unit of warriors in the ruin. Typhus and
bros go after the wraithguard again while the warriors on the right go after
the small warrior squad.

Bolter and plasma bring down 2 warriors from the
small squad who go to ground, but they hold.

Combat and the toad charges the warriors who get a
single over watch wound on the monstrosity. They fail to do any more damage and
lose 2 of their number then run and escape. Typhus and plague marine friends
charge into the wraithguard but a marine dies to over watch. The champion again
issues a challenge; the baron accepts and makes short work of the bloated
follower of Nurgle. Typhus kills 2 more wraithguard while I deal 0 wounds. I
hit and run away again (I guess that can get irritating) but Typhus and plague marines take back the defence line..

Eldar turn 4

I fortune the wraithguard again and the guardians run
off the table. The warriors keep on running as well but stay on the table.

The running warriors shoot at the toad but fail to
hit, but the small war walker unit shoot the toad and kill it. On the right the
warriors and ravager bring down a single plague marine each leaving a single
model remaining. The wraithguard shoot at the plague marines in the centre and
kill 1, the large walker squad shoot at them as well but fail to do any damage.

Combat and the wraithguard charge into the small unit
of plague marines in front of them, the baron accepts the challenge again and
kills another champion of the dark gods. Nothing else happens apart from I remember
I have warp spiders again and move them with their second jump.

Chaos turn 4

The plague marine on the right move towards the warriors.
Typhus attempts to cast gift again but perils this time, taking a wound.

The plague marines use the lascannon on the ravager
but miss.

The lone plague marine charges into the warriors
killing 2 and the last model runs off the table while the marine consolidates
into the wreck. Nothing happens in the other combat and I hit and run away.

Eldar turn 5

I finally remember to move the warp spiders and they
get into range of the lone plague marine on the right. The warriors rally!

The warp spiders kill the lone plague marine after
the ravager fails all 3 shots to hit him. The war walkers kill the other lone
survivor of the combat.

Chaos turn 5

The farseer is the master of psykers this game as he
foils another attempt from typhus to gift the wraithguard. It’s totally unprecedented.
Typhus leaves the safety of the plague marines and goes it alone.

The lascannon this time immobilises the ravager.

We roll to see if the game carries on, it does, but
also the lights go down.Night fight.

Eldar turn 6

The warp spiders move towards typhus and deal a wound
to him while the rest of the army fails to.

They run away in the assault phase so he can’t kill
them.

Chaos turn 6

The plague marines kill a single wraithguard with the
lascannon.

We roll again and the game ends.

Eldar: 7 (first blood, 6 kill points) – Chaos 3 (3
kill points)

Post-Battle

Well what can I say about that game, I made a few
mistakes, I got lucky with some rolls and it was a blast (for me anyway). The
biggest thing in the game for me was my farseer preventing Typhus from casting
a single spell, either stopping him all together with his runes or by actively being
badass and denying the witch. If only that happened every game, despite him
being level 1. So what did I learn?

·Don’t forget your units: I can’t
believe I kept forgetting the warp spiders. When I did remember them they
caused wounds, but I guess because I couldn’t see them I just totally forgot.
Any other game and that could easily have cost me it. I have to stop getting excited
and be a little more methodical with my phases, if that happens in the 1000
point tournament I lose, simple as.

·War walkers: Keeping them at
the back is defiantly the sweet spot for them, being able to shoot but staying
out of range of bolters sure makes them survive.

·Changing the plan: While I would
not normally say sending the wraithguard into combat on their own is a good idea,
I feel it was this game as It forced my opponent back into his own deployment
zone to deal with them or be totally surrounded. Well done on seeing that
little opportunity. If I didn’t do that Typhus would have been able to assault something
and destroy it.

·Move your damn ravager every
turn!

Well I really enjoyed that game and it was great to
face such beautiful models. However I feel my army was almost suited to face
him as his advantage is being T 5, and with most of my weapons being S 6 or poison
4+ it really had him on the back foot from the off. A great game though.

As a little
side note, while I was typing this I was thinking about the new eldar codex and
if I would like to see them have a better ability to prevent psychic powers or
be more powerful damage dealers. I came to the conclusion in my head that I would
prefer better deny the witch ability above anything else. While the runes are a
great idea I don’t think farseers should be the greatest psykers on the table,
Tzneetch deamons and chaos sorcerers should be. Now before every one rages at
me hear me out. Farseers are eldar who get stuck on the path of the witch, like
an exarch. But instead of honing their martial power like the exarchs they
guide the craftworld with rituals to see into the future with runes etc.. now
that takes time, it’s not something that should be quickly done on the battlefield.
So I hope they keep their supportive role and don’t become the most powerful
with stupidly powerful abilities, just something nice like farseers have a
basic DTW of 5+. In a contest of who can use a fireball to destroy something, a
librarian should be able to beat a farseer. However if the librarian wishes to
try that trick on the farseer the farseer should be able to prevent it with the
click of his fingers. Just something to think about.

2 comments:

Great game, It sucks to see Chaos lose, but Eldar have some sweet units.

I think Runes of (Warding?), the one that makes enemies take the test on 3d6 and peril on 12+ is good enough. It stops it from being overpowered, but it seriously screws over a lot psykers, Even a LD10 pskyer has over a 1/3 chance of failing and Perils. Chaos can actually mitigate that somewhat by taking a spell familiar.

A Warlock gives you a 5+ Deny the Witch - for DTW purposes they are Mastery 0 (The rule for DTW is +1 for equal/weaker psykers, +2 for more powerful psykers). I.E. A mastery 2 casting onto a Mastery 1-2 OR warlock = 5+ DTW, a Mastery 2 casting onto Eldrad (Mastery 3) = 4+ DTW.

For giggles, combine this with a Void Dreamer's Spirit Shield which gives an additional +2 to DTW... I had had a unit with a 2+ DTW (6+ goes to 4+ with Spirit Shield, and then to 2+ with a superior Psyker in the unit, or the Void Dreamer present makes it 3+ at Mastery 2). But I digress...

The DTW on a 5+ is base for any psyker in the unit, regardless of mastery level. The Runes of Warding should stay as they are to show the defensive prowess of the Eldar when it comes to psychics. However, some Farseers are quite war like - look at the lore around Bel-Annath of the Mymeara craftworld. He is a former aspect warrior of multiple shrines and a former Autarch who became a Farseer. He is the best Farseer in CC (being WS6 and 4 attacks on the charge) and due to the broken nature of Forge World has access to the pyromancy school. I agree that Farseer's are mostly support, but not all of them are - a lot of the lore, books, etc. portray a group of Farseer's who are seers and not warlocks who have some brutal abilities in the way of witchfire. Thirianna in Path of the Seer is a classic example, during the battle with the Sons of Orar Librarian - she rips his mind apart. In the chambers of the craftworld the seers divine the future and navigate the threads of fate. On the battle field they fight - the only Farseers that go onto the front lines have previously trodden the path of the warrior and have their war mask, as such, they know how to control and use their anger and murder lust to destroy their enemies.